Essay On Why Does The Uk Need A Codified Constitution

Whenever we talk about the British constitutional system, the first thing we should acknowledge is that we are examining the sources that shape up the UK constitution. The framework of how the UK constitution operates is not present in one single location, it is in various forms. Obviously the sources that we are talking about here are from a legal aspect. Now whilst most of the sources of the UK constitution exist in a written form, there is a lack of a single document. Hence it is better to think of it as uncodified.

For us to examine the statement in question, we have to define what is a constitution? K. Wheare, in his book, “Modern Constitutions” from 1966 gave quite a good definition of what a constitution is. For him, he

If the UK were to implement the concept of having a codified constitution then this doctrine would be completely meaningless and would not be able to have effect as it has done it in the past for the reason that codified constitutions are ruled upon by judges. Parliamentary sovereignty would be effectively abolished. As we are also well aware in UK, judges are unelected and it would be consequently undemocratic to take power away from the elected representatives and give it to judges. A codified constitution would act as a form of supreme law and therefore would destabilize one of the key principles in the UK’s representative democracy. It is only the elected Parliament can decide on the constitutionality of laws. Thus, having the current constitutional arrangements preserves the democratic concept, that the constitution, if changed, is done so by democratically elected bodies. Another good thing of the current constitutional arrangements adopted by the UK is that it is flexible. If the government has a political mandate from the people, the government can reform the constitution, whereas in countries like the USA, it is nearly impossible to change their constitution. How do we know that what is best for us now will still be best in 10 years time? The current constitutional arrangements can be easily amended to keep up with society's changes, unlike codified constitutions which are written and therefore